Time to tinker!

Well, I downloaded c#.net express along with XNA game studio express from Microsoft last night. I have not had a chance to really check it out yet, but looking over some of the code for their example spacewars game, I am liking what I see.

I think I am going to try my hand at a Isometric single player RPG. Something small, possibly just a prototype I can build upon as time passes. I need to work on some design as far as laying out objects and such - and also play the game designer role and work on a game environment and world, classes, skills, abilities and all the other yumyum stuff that will be in the game.

As stated previously, it is my aim to get into the game dev industry. I do have a friend locally with some connections - and he himself is a developer and has spoken to be about working on something together. So we shall see. If I wasn't making the salary I am making now (and barely scraping by) as a developer working on US Navy stuff, I would be applying for entry level game development stuff (like, testing). But I simply cannot survive in California making like 20k a year. Hell I can barely survive, thanks to my ex wife, at over 2x that now in Virginia :(

Anyhow, back on topic - I will be starting the initial design process here in the next couple weeks. I am pretty excited :D